The day has arrived ....

Pulling reefers means A LOT of unpaid waiting times sometimes half a day waiting for a trailer to be loaded, sometimes more than that if the produce is being picked from the field to load your trailer.

Dry van requires the least input from the driver. Your first year you will have your hands full just learning the job and being away from home. The companies you listed are the big mega-carriers that hire hundreds of drivers every year because they lose hundreds of drivers every year. Your list is essentially like asking should I eat all of my meals next year at McDonald's or Burger King? There are MANY more and better options but they aren't coming to your school and asking you to apply for them.

As to financing your CDL school, it's nice you have someone that will finance it for you. If that person is going to loan you the money get a real promisorry note and make it a real loan with market interest rates, have it signed & notarized. If you do that there is a chance your new employer will recognize it as a legitimate loan and pay you Tuition Reimbursement toward that loan. I'm guessing 30-55% of trucking companies that hire newbies have Tuition Reimbursement (TR).

I cannot emphasize strongly enough how Important I think this next item is. Be a company employee driver your first year. Unless the Taliban is holding your family hostage under no circumstance consider becoming a CDL driver AND leasing or lease-operating a truck that first year. The financial risk is real and huge. You cannot possibly know if you will even tolerate doing this job until you start doing this job. All the YouTube videos in the world do don convey what it's like being lost, or not sure if you are lost, dragging a 53 foot trailer in a strange city with angry and impatient cars all around you. As a company driver if you find you can't or won't continue doing this job you give lots of notice and a finish date and work until the end. As a lease-op you have a contract that OBLIGATES YOU to pay for the truck and ALLOWS the company to provide or pay for certain aspects of the truck. A good attitude is not enough to keep from going broke leasing a truck. You need knowledge and experience and money. Drive as a company driver and later decide if you want to obligate yourself the financial risk of operating a $150k truck in an efficient commercial manner. I promise you the mega-lease carriers will have you hauling cheap freight all over the country for less money than many company drivers will be working and they don't have to worry about financing a big repair. If their company truck breaks they just ask for another truck.

There is a lot less stress being away from home, lost in a city, late for an appointment than all of that and getting a negative "paycheck" for last week's lease settlement.

 

Only 4yrs on the forum till making the leap?

####, got me beat by a bit there! LOL

Looks like you have done some very good due diligence in research before hand. Good to see. Wish more would do the same.

You narrowed down to some decent starter choices. Got a few other good suggestions given to you, to boot . Think you will do just fine, wherever you decide to go.

Just got that vibe you may actually have a mindset that could actually work out out here. Not that I have ever been wrong. LOL

Good Lord, another guy that is actually educated coming out.....what the hell is this world coming to?

Here's wishing the best possible outcome for you.

 

Two things keeping my wife from moving, her family and the humidity wreaks havoc on her hair down south. It took me a year to convince her to date me and then 3 to convince her to marry me. I have a feeling this will take much longer. Maybe once the kids get older and head down there for school will help her change her mind.

 

My wife loves Tennessee. I like the weather in Las Vegas; the air is dry. It's hot in the summer, but with the dry air, it's ok.
Mine wanted to stay in Tennssee, so I said ok, I'll send a postcard to you.

 

I like to throw the dice too much to live in Vegas. I'll settle for Knoxvegas though

 

Location

Location

Location

I worked out of the tampa bay area my whole life. Choose your company carefully.
I pulled reefer most of my career, and would do it all over again.

I hauled tons of produce out of florida. I also hauled countless flower/plant loads from south florida.

There's good paying work down here, it just takes time to find it.

You have a good plan, you'll do great.

Best of Luck

 

I'd go with Crete because they have a terminal closest to you and pay the most CPM. They also have the Shafer refrigerated division should you want to do reefer. Although I would not bother unless they offered you 5 cpm more than dry van to make it worth the extra hassle.

 

J&R Shugal start at $0.38 per mile for reefer. Trucks have APU, an inverter, and are set up for TV in the truck. For orientation they fly you instead of bus you and you have a room by yourself.